1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package in which a telephone is stored, and particularly to a package by which a radio telephone set is mounted on an automobile and is used thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been raised an increased demand of using a telephone anywhere, and accordingly there have been commercially available several kinds of portable telephone units to cope with this demand. These portable telephone units can access public telephone networks through a radio relay station with a manipulation similar to that used for a conventional stationary telephone unit.
An onboard telephone unit is most popular among these portable telephone units and has a peculiar arrangement. That is, in this arrangement, there can be enumerated, for example, the following matters: an antenna is mechanically independent from a telephone unit, and a power supply is annexed to the telephone unit.
First, the installation of the antenna independent from the telephone unit has the following two purposes:
(i) Articulate radio communication to and from a radio relay station should be conducted without interruption. Accordingly, radiowaves have to be prevented from being absorbed by a vehicle body of an automobile which is a cage made of metal in its substantial entirety. This cage serves as a shield for absorbing radiowaves. Accordingly, radiowaves are attenuated to such a degree that radio communication cannot be made.
If an antenna for a telephone unit is provided outboard of a vehicle, this problem can be solved. The outboard antenna is mechanically distant from the telephone unit, and is secured to, for example, an edge of the trunk lid or on the roof panel of a vehicle body through the intermediary of an insulator, at a position where the antenna can achieve the above-mentioned purposes, satisfactorily.
(ii) The antenna should be protected against electromagnetic noise which is transmitted from an ignition coil through the vehicle body. However, this problem is avoided by the telephone unit having such an outboard antenna.
However, in order to completely eliminate the effect of electromagnetic noise, not only paying attention to the position of the antenna but also applying an electromagnetic shield to a cable which connects the antenna to the telephone unit is required since this cable is likely to be subjected to the effect of electromagnetic noise transmitted through a metal part of the vehicle body.
Second, the power supply has to feed energy for all operations of the telephone unit, such as driving of a speaker, ringing of a bell and the like. It has been popular to use for this power supply the standard automobile battery.
There has been an increased demand for an onboard telephone unit which can also be used outside of the vehicle. Specifically, in addition to use the telephone unit in the inside of the vehicle, it is desirable to be able to use the telephone unit while taking a walk after the telephone unit has been lifted up and taken away from the vehicle upon alighting from the vehicle. Accordingly, in such a portable telephone unit, a miniature antenna is fixed to its casing, and further, a power source is incorporated in or is fixed to the casing. In most cases, the power source is a rechargeable battery such as an Ni-Cd battery, an Li battery or the like.
Further, a portable telephone unit of this kind has to have terminals adapted to be connected to the above-mentioned outboard antenna, and a mount for fixing the telephone unit to the passenger compartment of the vehicle.
Accordingly, there have been produced several kinds of mount systems and connectors for the antenna and the telephone unit. However, in each case, several steps of manipulation have been required for removal and installation of the telephone unit. That is, in order to set the telephone unit in the inside of the vehicle, there are required to be performed three steps including (1) setting the telephone unit at a predetermined position, (2) fixing the thus set telephone unit, and (3) connecting the cable from the outboard antenna to the telephone. Particularly, concerning the above-mentioned step (2), several kinds of connectors, such as one incorporating a screw, one incorporating a latch and the like, are used for the connector for connecting the cable to the telephone unit in order to prevent accidental disconnection. It can be enumerated as a disadvantage common to these connectors that the removal and installation of the telephone unit or the connector are time-consuming and cumbersome. This becomes more severe when the telephone unit is fixed to the inside of the vehicle.
One of most popular positions of installation of the telephone unit is a position between the driver's seat and the navigator's seat of an automobile. In the case of a vehicle in which these seats are separate, this position has a flat floor surface. Further, for the driver, this place can be most accessible and can permit the top surface of the telephone unit to be readily visible.
On the other hand, this position is not suitable for easy installation and removal of the telephone unit since this position is surrounded by obstacles such as seats, passive seat belts, switches for power windows, a shift selector, a side brake and the like. Accordingly, it is difficult to move a hand at this position for fixing and connecting the telephone unit. Sometimes the driver has to turn a connector with great difficulty. During the night-time in particular, it is dark around the installation position and is hard for the driver to see. Accordingly, the installation and removal of the telephone unit is more difficult.
Further, the above-mentioned obstacles make contact with not only the driver's hand but also the cable or the mount so as to impose a stress thereon. As a result, these obstacles might cause breakage of the cable, damage of the electromagnetic shield, damage to the mount, deformation of or damage to the connector or the like.